


Drowning

by disdainfullady



Category: Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-06
Updated: 2014-06-06
Packaged: 2018-02-03 14:25:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1747808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disdainfullady/pseuds/disdainfullady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Continuing posting my old fic.   This was a preseries ficlit, set five days after Lilly's death, before Veronica was ostracized.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drowning

The beach is deserted. Hardly surprising, given that the weather was such that any minute now some guy would be loading animals into an ark. It isn't supposed to rain like this in Southern California. 

Somehow it seems all too fitting, like something out of Greek mythology. When Lilly Kane died, the sun, in grief, fled the city of Neptune, leaving it a cold and barren wasteland. Like the tale of Persephone, until Lilly returned from the land of the dead, then nature itself would turn on mankind. Except, being Lilly, she'd eat the whole pomegranate and then challenge Hades to a game of quarters, so nature was going to have to deal. They all were.

Of course there would be those who might consider standing in the pouring rain for hours staring at a section of beach to be a poor way of dealing, but she was beyond caring.

***

Veronica, honey, I don't want to play the stereotype of the overprotective parent, but please call and let me know you're okay. If you're stuck at a friend's house, don't worry, I don't want you out in this, just please check in so I know you're safe. Things are looking bad out there. 

And the fact that your best friend was just murdered means I'm feeling less than complacent not knowing where you are.

He leaves three messages before panic sets in and he goes to track her cell phone - which reveals itself to be lying on her desk, abandoned. And then he panics in earnest.

Because Veronica knows better. She knows how freaked out he'd get. And sure, teenagers could be thoughtless, but he hardly thinks his daughter's going incommunicado five days after her best friend's murder was because of a pressing need to obsess about Orlando Bloom or some cute boy in her chemistry class. This was because of Lilly - just like every other time she'd ever missed her curfew - the difference being that this time, he had no idea where she'd go.

Normally his first instinct would be to call the Kanes, but that was the one thing that he can not, under any circumstances, do now. If by some chance Jake and Celeste weren't involved in Lilly's death, then the last thing they'd want was to hear from a father whose kid had simply missed curfew. And if they were involved... 

Surely Veronica wouldn't have gone over there. Duncan was still in the hospital being treated for shock, and something Lianne had said suggested the two of them had had a falling out anyway. Veronica couldn't have wanted to be anywhere near the spot where the blood of her friend still stained the stones by the pool. But between the two of them Duncan and Lilly had formed almost the whole of Veronica's social group. Almost...

***

He is playing video games with an intensity they didn't deserve. As if he actually cares whether he advances to level thirteen or not. As if anything matters now that-

"Honey?"

He surreptitiously tries to pull himself together, tries to look normal, whatever that means. He knows Mom's been worrying about him. She's practically doubled her daily alcohol intake in her concern.

"It's Mr. Mars on the phone. He's worried about Veronica, apparently he hasn't heard from her since this morning."

"Funny, I thought reporting back to people was what Veronica Mars did best."

You'd think something like the death of his girlfriend would make him cherish his other friends. I must have a petty soul. Or maybe I missed out on a soul altogether.

His mom shoots him a patented disappointed Mom look that he has never seen her pull before, although he’s seen it often enough on Mrs. Kane, and – less frequently – on Mrs. Mars. I guess that’s what the new pills are for. She apologizes for him into the phone and he shouldn’t care except he suddenly knows where Veronica is.

“Come on, Logan,” Lilly manages to stretch those four syllables more than should be humanly possible. “You have to come with us.”

Somehow she’s pouting and smiling at the same time, and even as he gives a token protest he knows, and she knows, that he’s going to give in. Just like he did the last storm, and the one before that and the one before that. Veronica and Duncan have already capitulated – no shock there, but he’s unwilling to go down without a fight, and points out that a beach isn’t supposed to be the safest of places in a thunderstorm.

She grins and kittens up to him. “So, Mr. Echolls, since when are you afraid of danger?” And he smiles and gives in, because she’ll only laugh at him if he voices his real answer, which is ever since he met her.

He doesn’t know why he didn’t call Mr. Mars back. Why instead he chooses to try to drive in this damned torrential downpour. Except, this is, was Lilly’s spot, and it’d be wrong somehow, like strangers going through her belongings or something.

He drives recklessly, nearly losing control twice, but he gets there in one piece and there she is. And Veronica’s always been tiny, but here she looks so fragile she might break. Her hair is plastered down with water and he realizes she isn’t even wearing a jacket.

***

“She’s not in there, Veronica.”

The voice jolts her out of her thoughts and she turns in surprise, her eyes blurry from tears and rain, her head muddled. How long has he been there?

She stands there, looking at him, but not seeing him for what seems like an age, and she realizes that at some point he’s draped his coat over her shoulders and he’s now standing there shivering with the cold.

He’s talking to her, gently, as though she’s a scared little girl, which, at the moment, seems pretty accurate. Eventually she registers surprise that he’s being so patient. She could think of a lot of words to describe Logan Echolls. Patient wouldn’t make the top hundred.

She lets him bundle her into his car, rejoicing in not having to think for the moment. She can’t handle thoughts right now. The drive seems to take an age as he carefully makes his way through the semi-flooded streets. When he drops her off she turns to thank him, “Logan, I-“

“Forget it.” His words are clipped but not harsh and she senses he’s as helpless as she is. Both of them are drowning and she can’t think how to save him without going under herself. She turns and goes inside, his coat still slung over her shoulders.


End file.
